Week 2 - Wordle Ideas

After you have experienced creating a WORDLE, post a comment about anything you have observed about Wordle or your ideas for how you might use it instructionally. See the examples provided below. When you are ready to post your thoughts about Wordle, remember to click on EDIT THIS PAGE at the top right, then click in the next available row in the table to type your name and your one sentence idea or thought about Wordle.
If all the rows have been used, click in the last row and then click on the table icon (). Then, choose Row, Add Row, Add below to add another row for your entry.

BE SURE TO SAVE! Revisit this page to see what others have posted-save good ideas to use in your classroom!

Participant Name	Ideas about using a Web 2.0 Technology like Wordle
Donna Pepper	I like the way words that I have used more than once appear larger since it helps me get a visual of the "big ideas" in my writing.
Cheryl Ward	Paste in the content of a famous speech and see if students know the speech, study the words used most frequently, is that why the speech was famous?
Stephanie Sukie	This would be a good beginning of the year activity to get to know each student individually. I would have them use 25 or more words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) that describe them.
Kelly Kendrick	Students could create their own Wordle using weekly spelling words giving them practice in typing, spelling and saying the words as they create their page. To create a community atmosphere in a building, you could have each student submit one word to complete this statement, "What I like my most about my school is..." and use those words to create a Wordle. The Wordle could be used as a cover on a yearbook or a newsletter that goes home to parents.
Annette Marino	After playing around with Wordle, I feel that this would be a fun way for students to practice and learn math vocabulary words. Students can be creative on how to use Wordle to learn vocabulary and I really like that the key "Big Ideas" in math can be larger words in different fonts and colors.
Rhonda Shure	This is a great way for students to personalize and showcase their skills by creating a wordle that is uniquely theirs. I enjoyed creating my own wordles and seeing the uniqueness of each one. This could easily be an ice breaker for teachers' PD sessions as well.
Keidi Ehrgott/Kemore HS	I think this will be a great visual way to pull my students into their weekly vocabulary activities, but also for the vocabulary geared for a particualr unit of study. For instance, creating an vocabulary umbrella for figures of speech. The overarching big term of "figures of speech" with the terms (personifiction/apostrophe/simile) clustered/created underneath. Then students will learn the jargon to analyze poetry or various writing styles, and then use additional technology formats to show their mastery of those skills
Jonathan Hatch	This would be a great way to introduce new math vocabulary words that will be discussed throughout a chapter. It is a great way to grab the attention of the student. The wordle could then be re-visited at the end of the chapter when discussing all the meanings.
Chris Vanderneut/ Stanton M.S.	After giving an answer to a science essay the student could paste this into Wordle. Then this can be shared with the language arts teacher to look grammatical word usage.
Tina Hartong/Spring Hill Junior High	I love the above idea....especially for Language Arts class. After a student has written an essay, creating a wordle will allow them to see if they are using unnecessary words too often. My students use the word "LIKE" way too much. Another Language Arts idea....pull key words from a story that you are about to read. Have students use the wordle to predict what the story is about.
Richard Pierce Erwine MS	This is another interesting tool that will help turn a boring assignment into something fun and exciting for the students. I would like to have the students do an introduction to the class with a second part of what they did interesting or exciting over the summer.
Linda Whited Spring Hill Jr. High	This is a cool tool that kids will just love to use! They love to write meaningful words all over their books, their papers, and even themselves! Now they can use a computer program to create a page that not only has words all over it, but it looks as if it's been professionally prepared. I think I could combine this with a Language Arts unit when we discuss character traits of certain characters. Students could brainstorm general traits about certain characters in a novel or short story--support those generalizations with details and examples from the story. The Wordle could serve as the hard copy of the character's personna in an artistic form and a concrete example for those students who are visual learners. I really like this software!
Cindy Carpenter Stanton/Kent	Wordle is a great tool to introduce and/or review math vocabulary. I think that it would also come in handy when teaching math songs/raps.
Brandi Davis East High School Akron City Schools	Wordle is a wonderful way to introduce a topic where you want to highlight important ideas, key words, or phrases.
Christine Lorence/ Coventry	We did an advisory activity this year where students listed ugly words and kind words for an anti-bullying activity. Using Wordle would be a fantastic tool for kids to list their words creatively and express their feelings next time!
Stephanie Andrews Kenmore HS Akron, Oh	I would use Wordle as a way to incorporate vocabulary, but especially poetry, as a starter for lessons. I’m not sure our students could truly cognitively benefit from this tool, but it would definitely be an attention-getting device. I think teachers will take any help they can get, and this should catch some students’ interest! Plus, it could be a great way to have students type their own poetry or vocabulary as a reward or mini-project!
Sonja Spencer East HS Akron	In mathematics, students could type in categorical data and see how the words compare. While looking at the wordle, the students can make predictions on what appear the most depending on the size of the words.
Susan Elliott Spring Hill Jr. High Akron	I really like that students could use this as a visual for their vocabulary. I was really impressed with the wordle using the Constitution. It definitely showed that united and states were important vocabulary in the Constitution. Another thought I had as I previewed the examples was using wordle with old OAA tests to identify vocabulary that is used frequently especially the verbs in the short and extended responses
Anthony Casalinuovo Kenmore High Akron	Wordle is a great way for an educator to focus a lesson plan on standards, objectives, and desired outcomes.
Meredith Kelley East HS Akron, OH	I love Wordle! I use it often to help my students visualize the important elements of a novel or characters that I want them to focus on.
Jeffrey Miller East High Akron	I have always felt there was a need to place greater importance on understanding and knowing math vocabulary for understanding the concepts rather than only teach procedurely I think the use of wordle will give students an outlet for mapping vocabluary words and make connection to better improve their understand and communication in math.
Courtney Cahoon / Kenmore	This is an awesome tool to harness students' creativity and to encourage connections between vocabulary words - could be really neat for English class!
Yolanda Bradford/Perkins Middle Schoo--Akron	Wordle is a wonderful tool to use as a visual to introduce a new topic or concept across the curriculum. I saw it used for the first time the other day by the literacy coach at school.
Jennifer Blankeship/Kent Middle School - Akron	I loved how Wordle pulled out the main words that I copied from my post! The students could really get a lot out of this by pasting something they are writing and see what it pulls out for their main points or words. I can see the students really getting into this activity!
Michelle Warner Spring Hill Junior High School	One of the things I observed was how current the posts were. I think Wordle could be used to create a collage of words or a "poster" to show learning. For instance, if a student were learning about nutrition they could do a Wordle on carbohydrates listing all of the simple and complex carbohydrates a person could consume. Other students could do complete and incomplete proteins, fats - saturated, mono and poly, cholesterol, etc. Young children could even use it to identify the food groups. There are so many possibilities.
Christine Workman Kent	Wordle would be a wonderful way to show math concepts. For example, you could make one for triangles with all the terms associated with triangles. Another use would be to improve writing vocabulary. Making a wordle to show options for overused words like "big".
Amanda Stidd Perkins Middle School	As I teach a vocabulary-heavy subject, wordle would be great for the kids to practice their Spanish words, verb conjugations, and the like. I could create a wordle with Spanish and English, they could identify the "matches" in the wordle. Or, they could create their own wordles just to practice spelling their words.
Lorie Marozzi Ravenna High School	WOW! How cool is that? I really liked the creative expressions of individuals. Rhonda's idea of using Wordle as an ice-breaker for staff PD is a great idea. Science vocabulary is a struggle for many of our students, and I see Wordle as a way to engage kids in learning the difficult vocab.
Jerry Fox Kenmore HS	I think it would be great way for students to start ideas on a unit and keep adding to it. They could start to see what is important not because I said so but because they and their friends have put it up for them
Jennifer Garwood Stanton Middle School- Kent	I love Wordle! I was introduced to Wordle at a workshop at the beginning of the school year. I have used it to for students to create a poster all about themselves ,using words to describe themselves and things they like to do. I have also used it to introduce technology vocabulary- in a more fun way. For me, I think it would be a really cool way to display classroom rules in the Media Center- each rule could be a different Wordle poster. I actually think the students might read the rules that way!
Catrina Burwell Stanton Middle School	I can't wait to use Wordle in the classroom. Students could use this tool when doing spelling or vocabulary assignments. It's such a fun tool to play around with; I think that students will really enjoy Wordle.
Jeff Miller Spring Hill MS	I like the connections and conceptual web that could be developed. Wordle would really be useful when summarizing a standard that has been taught. It would be interesting to let the students develop a wordle instead of taking notes, and present it to the class.
Steve D'Attoma Akron East H.S.	I like the idea of using Wordle as a pre-writing exercise or introductory exercise for the students to use to be able to begin brainstorming about a topic they are being introduced to. I think this method would be an effective way of engaging the students and getting them excited and motivated about the topic they will be exploring. Wordle could also be used as a vocabulary building tool or review format for a vocabulary test or quizz!
Angie Callaway Spring Hill Jr. High Akron	Wordle is so cool! I think there are so many things that could be done with it! I can see students using it for presenting some free verse poems with a different twist. I think it would be a non-threatening way to create poetry! Perhaps, students could write a summary of a book or story, which might be neat to see. Also, using it to show students overused words they use in their writing would be helpful!
Diane Conyers-Rizzo/Ravenna HS	I think an introduction to a new lesson could be breaking into small groups and brainstorming words that would go with the lesson. Individual groups would submit their words and a class list would be determined. The class list could be created in Wordle
Paula Ulrich Kent Middle School	Wow! It took me awhile, since I had trouble redownloading JAVA, but this is so cool! I agree with Jennifer this would be another creative way for students to indroduce themselves and the beginning of the year, especially in Language Arts. I would challenge them with the use of rich adjectives and other words that acurately describe themseves. This would also be useful lead in or activity in a poetry unit.
Shawn Bonfine Ravenna HS	I like the idea of having students explain a large concept in their own words. Then the different explanations can be combined into one Wordle, and used to show (mis)understanding of a concept or as a visual set of "notes" over the topic.
Joshua Grove Kenmore High Akron	I enjoyed playing with wordle and I posted a link to a Wordle of the NETS-T standards. I think it might be fun to give the students a wordle of a test you are to give to show what concepts are most important. It would also be a good tool for teachers to see if that is what they really wanted to be most important in their document/test.
Dolores Whaley/RKMS	What I observed from the website was that this could be used in your classroom or in your leisure. I saw many thought provoking word sets. I began thinking immediately that this was a much more unique word wall. I can see myself creating ways to have my students use this tool.
Jacqueline Clayton Perkins Middle	I really love it, especially for vocabulary words on a word wall in the classroom and hallways. You can use it for a back to school activity--the activities you can do with wordle are endless.
Susan West Roswel Kent MS	As so many others have mentioned, using this as resource for a word wall or vocabulary study would be beneficial. I can also see this being used as a cover page or introductory page for a unit and/or lesson.
Brian Jackson Perkins Middle School	This would be great for students to create their own word walls. Students would be able to a have their own touch on the classroom. Also, students could use this to study vocanulary words before a test. Different word walls could be used to group like and unlike things.
Sherry Bennington Kent Middle School	It would be fun to create a wordleand have student figureout the "topic". Wordle could also be used for behavior goals and PBS information.
John Dunn Perkins Middle School	It would be neat to have the students create a design using words that somehow conncet to each other. They could then pick a word and describe its meaning and how another word relates to it.